October 30, 2012

Southwest Airlines said conditions were improving across the East Coast and that it anticipated returning to normal operations by midday Wednesday except in the New York/New Jersey area.

"The airlines are still evaluating damage incurred by Hurricane Sandy in those areas," the Dallas-based carrier said referring to New York LaGuardia, Newark, Philadelphia and Long Island MacArthur airports.

So far, Southwest has cancelled 1,300 flights from Sunday to midday Wednesday with its subsidiary, AirTran Airways, cancelling 400 flights during that same time period.

UPDATE 5 p.m. CDT: Southwest said it expects to have "normal operations" across most of the East Coast by mid-morning on Wednesday. However, it does not anticipate any flights to or from New York's LaGuardia airport or Newark on Wednesday. Southwest's total flight cancellations have reached 1,350 with AirTran maintaining 400 cancelled flights.